Transcript of Rahm Emanuel Monitor Breakfast
(Page 7 of 12)
And it’s not just one speech, it’s a series of policies [inaudible]. Now that’s on the foreign policy stuff. On the economics, we’ve taken the worst financial and economic recession since the Great Depression and while there have been other policies, and everything else –
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Look, America was on the precipice. That’s my observation. We are finally gotten a stability from the decline, and even yesterday’s recent economic data, and you don’t go off for one month, are starting to show some level of not only stability from the decline, but also maybe some places where you can start to see the signs of recovery and regaining of strength in the economy.
So they are different people in totally different contexts. I don’t wanna go on filibustering at this point, I could go on more about both differences and similarities, but let me drive it back to healthcare. And I can, which is one of the reasons we’re here.
Part of the lessons – part of the differences you see today are the lessons learned from what President Clinton went through. And I also think it’s not just for us at the White House. That’s true for Congress. I think they know the results. I think if you ask today, Congress, I’ve returned from a meeting with a number of senators two days ago. They know failure is not an option. That was not the psychology going into ‘93 and ‘94.
So while they’re different, there’s significant things taken away from what happened in both the affirmative side and the not so affirmative side in ’93, ’94, and ’95 that are important lessons to be learned and that I think we have to have an open mind in doing that.
Q: [paraphrased] Regarding the NY Senate race in 2010, why not let the Democratic process play itself out? And let other House members, or several house members, run in the primary against Kirsten Gillibrand?
RE: Look, Kirsten Gillibrand has been endorsed by the DSCC, endorsed by others. If other people wanna run, they can. I think, what we’re doing, and to be honest, having talked to - Steve is a dear friend of mind, a very dear friend of mine. I just said, Steve, if you’re going to do this, I want you to know full well what we’re going to be doing. So I don’t want you to be caught off guard. I thought I did it out of friendship. Since Steve and I were the first to talk, I said it to him as a friend, I said, “I don’t want you to jump into this and say, hey, you didn’t tell me that was going to happen.” So I said upfront, we’re gonna be involved, in the race, and I want you to know that. So before you make a decision, I don’t want you to have made a decision, say, you didn’t give me a heads up, why did you do this? So as a friend, a former colleague, we told him.
Q: One of the stories said you told him Obama would campaign in black neighborhoods.
RE: No, I was there, sorry. I was part of the conversation. I just told Steve, out of my back porch of the office, I told Steve, I said, I just wanted to tell ya, we’re gonna be involved in the primary, helping her. And I don’t want you to get in the race and find out after the fact. You make whatever decision you want, but I’m telling you this up front, so you don’t get caught off guard.
Q: On healthcare, the public plan in the House and Senate committees’ bills is an awful lot like Medicare.
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